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- From: Kalle.Kivimaa@hut.fi
- Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.bass,rec.answers,news.answers
- Subject: Rec.music.makers.bass Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) part 1/2
- Supersedes: <bass1_821438854@alpha.hut.fi>
- Followup-To: rec.music.makers.bass
- Date: 12 Feb 1996 16:51:48 GMT
- Organization: Helsinki University of Technology
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- Summary: Information for all interested in bass guitar playing and
- posting to rec.music.makers.bass
- Originator: killer@epsilon.hut.fi
- Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.music.makers.bass:34029 rec.answers:18403 news.answers:64575
-
- Archive-name: music/bass-faq/part1
- Version: 2.2
- Posting-Frequency: monthly
- Last-modified: 1995/27/12
-
- REC.MUSIC.MAKERS.BASS
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Version 2.2
- Revision Date - 27/12/95
-
- This FAQ is posted monthly to rec.music.makers.bass news.answers and
- rec.answer and can also be found by WWW (http://www.hut.fi/~killer/
- bass.faq.html). Mail comments and suggestions to Kalle Kivimaa
- (killer@hut.fi).
-
- Revisions since 2.1:
- Added information to the answer #21 (Flame me for errors!)
- Changed the address of Bottom Line
-
- [Administrivia: Seems like I will continue maintaining the FAQ.
- Hopefully the FAQ will appear on time from now on.]
-
- This FAQ list was created by Stephen Schmidt. Minor additions made
- by Kalle Kivimaa. Copyrights to various answers are owned by several
- people from rec.music.makers.bass. Permission granted to propagate
- this list freely on Internet, otherwise contact the list keeper
- (killer@hut.fi). This list may NOT be included on any publication.
-
- * Topics *
-
- Procedural
-
- 1. What is the purpose of rec.music.makers.bass?
- 2. What styles of bass playing are appropriate for discussion on
- rec.music.makers.bass?
- 3. What other sources of information on bass playing exist?
-
- Getting Started
-
- 4. What should I look for when buying my first bass and amplifier?
- 5. What is tabulature?
- 6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of tabulature?
- 7. Where can I get TAB to learn?
- 8. Who are some major makers of bass equipment? How much does their
- equipment cost? How can I get in touch with a particular manufacturer?
- 9. What are some good books on bass instruction?
- 10. How is standard music notation written for bass?
- 11. To what pitches are bass strings normally tuned?
-
- Intermediate Questions
-
- 11. How are 5 and 6 string basses tuned? What are the advantages and
- disadvantages of them? How are 8 and 12 string basses tuned and what
- are their advantages and disadvantages?
- 12. What is the difference between a preamplifier and a power amplifier?
- 13. What is biamping, and how is it done?
- 14. How do I adjust the setup on my bass (action, intonation, etc?)
- 15. What is the difference between the various types of strings?
- 16. How does a bass pickup work? What is the difference between the
- various kinds of pickups?
-
- Advanced Questions
-
- 17. How do I record my bass to tape?
- 18. What are some popular effects for bass and what do they do? Is there
- a difference between guitar effects and bass effects?
- 19. What is the difference between digital and analog electronics?
- 20. What do the ratings of amplifiers and speakers mean? What is a watt, or
- an ohm? What factors must I consider in connecting amplifiers to speakers?
-
-
- * Answers *
-
- 1. What is the purpose of rec.music.makers.bass?
-
- rec.music.makers.bass is a forum for the discussion of:
- 1) styles and techniques of playing bass guitars and acoustic bass viols;
- 2) the role of the bass in musical groups;
- 3) the merits of particular models of basses, amplifiers, and other
- equipment used in playing the bass;
- 4) music written for the bass, including TAB (tablature).
-
- 2. What styles of bass playing are appropriate for discussion on
- rec.music.makers.bass?
-
- rec.music.makers.bass exists to serve both electric bass players and acoustic
- bass players. Rock, funk, and jazz music are the most common styles discussed
- but all styles of music are welcome, as long as they include music written for
- bass.
-
- 3. What other sources of information on bass playing exist?
-
- On-line:
- There is an electronic mail magazine devoted to bass playing called The
- Bottom Line, distributed on a basis depending on the amount of material
- received (currently averaging about 2-3 issues per week.) To subscribe to
- The Bottom Line, or for other administrative correspondence, send email
- to majordomo@magpie.com with the message body containing lines such as
- help, info bass-digest, or subscribe bass-digest. To submit an article
- for publications, send email to bass@magpie.com. Please do not send
- personal correspodance to these addresses.
- The newsgroup alt.guitar.bass is a previous version of this newsgroup.
- It is still used by people who cannot access rmm.bass for one reason
- or another, and some people crosspost when the topic is of general
- interest. If you use both groups, PLEASE crosspost rather than posting
- seperately to each group. Ask your sysadmin how to crosspost if you do
- not know how.
- There is no specific newgroup for TAB for bass, so it is usually carried
- in rmm.bass. Sometimes bass TAB is posted to rec.music.makers.guitar.tablature
- which is a newsgroup which is mostly devoted to TAB for guitar.
-
- Off-line:
- There is a magazine called (appropriately) Bass Player which features
- interviews with famous bassists, product reviews, lesson columns, and
- TAB transcriptions of famous bass lines. Bass Player can be bought at
- most music stores. There is another magazine, fairly new, called Bassics
- which also carries information on bass playing and bass players, but
- which may be harder to find than Bass Player. In addition, most guitar
- magazines such as Guitar World have a bass column and occasionally print
- articles related to bass playing or bass tablature.
-
- 4. What should I look for when buying my first bass and amplifier?
-
- Presumably you're going to be buying both a bass and an amplifier, and
- there are things to know about both. In buying a first bass, there's really
- three things you want to look for: comfort, tone, and value, probably in that
- order.
- The most important thing is that you get an instrument you can play
- easily and comfortably. This is because the habits that you form on your first
- instrument are the ones that are going to follow you onto all your others,
- so you want to get one which doesn't give you major hand cramps, on which you
- can easily fret all the strings a fair ways up the neck, and which isn't
- too heavy for you, or too neck-heavy. If playing this bass is uncomfortable
- or painful, you'll probably never get to a better one, so you should be
- sure that this is something you want to be strapped into for a few hours
- a week while you're learning to play it. Bear in mind that the bass can
- be adjusted: in particular, the strings can be raised and lowered to a
- different distance from the fingerboard. If you find the strings too high
- off the board, or too close to it, ask the shop to raise or lower them
- for you. Other things, like a warped neck or bad frets, are a lot harder
- to fix and you definitely want to avoid basses which have these flaws.
- The second most important thing is tone. This is more or less the same
- issue, you're going to be playing this bass a few hours a week (at least!)
- and if you hate the sound, you'll probably stop. Think about the style of
- playing you're likely to develop. Do you want to play jazz, hard rock, funk?
- Do you want to use a pick, fingers, or slap? Get a bass that sounds good for
- the style of music you're going to play. If you're going to play blues, then
- don't worry if the bass has a lousy slap tone, and if you're gonna play
- slap funk, then don't worry too much about the pick sound. But if you're going
- to play in several styles, then you need a bass that has a good tone for
- all of them. The first thing you should do is listen to the bass without
- plugging it into the amp: just hold your ear down close to the string and
- play a note and see how it sounds. If it doesn't sound good unamplified,
- the amplifier probably won't make it sound a whole lot better. So this
- should be the first and most importaat test of tone. On the other hand,
- your amp will be able to affect the tone of the bass using EQ, at least to
- some degree. So, tone is less important than comfort, but not very much less
- important.
- The third thing to worry about is value. There are two effects. First,
- you'll be happier with a better bass and (again) more likely to stick with
- the instrument, so get the best one you can. Second, as you get better, you're
- probably going to buy another bass and sell this one, so you should try to
- buy one that will not lose too much value. The main point here is that
- name brands like Fender or Ibanez will hold their value better than less
- well know brands, so there is some advantage to them.
- Another thing that's important is to get a bass that looks attractive
- to you. If your bass is attractive, you'll look over at it, pick it up,
- and play it, whereas if it's ugly you'll look over at it, shiver, and look
- quickly in the other direction :) So, even though the look of the bass
- has no effect on the sound or your ability to play it, if it has an effect
- on your _willingness_ to play it, which it usually does, then get one that
- looks nice.
-
- For amps, there are also three important things, tone, weight, and power
- handling. Tone is important for the same reason as for basses: if you hate the
- sound you will probably stop playing. However, there are two considerations to
- keep in mind. First, amp EQ can have a big effect on the tone of your bass.
- The more bands of EQ the amp has, and the more effect the amp can have, then
- the more it can do to help the sound of your bass (or hurt it). So getting
- an amp with a fairly good EQ can help. The second thing is the size of the
- speaker in the amp. Generally bigger speakers have better bottom end, but
- smaller speakers have a tighter sound and are lighter. You should probably
- get either a 10" speaker or a 15" speaker, depending on which one you
- think has the better sound for you.
- Weight is another consideration that goes both ways: heavier amps
- usually sound better but are a pain to carry around. If you can get an
- amp with wheels you can save yourself some carrying effort: but remember
- that it won't help you going up stairs, so it's not a cure-all. Before
- buying an amp, pick it up and carry it around a bit (don't drop it!)
- and see how heavy it is. Don't buy an amp that you're not willing to haul
- around a fair bit.
- The third factor is power handling. The more power an amp has, the
- louder it can get but the more it will cost and weigh. For practicing
- by yourself, you can get by with 10 or 20 watts. (Always measure the
- watts in watts RMS and not in maximum power handling. Watts RMS is usually
- about half the max power.) To play with other musicians, you're going to
- need 50 or 60 watts, or 100 watts if the drummer is loud. To play in front
- of an audience at rock volumes you'll need 200 watts or more. Note, however,
- that two amps with the same wattage can have very different volumes,
- depending on what materials are used in their construction and how good
- the speakers are. So, don't worry too much about the number on the box;
- just make sure it's loud enough for what you need to do. If you're just
- going to play by yourself, then you can get away with a smaller amp,
- though you're more likely to want to buy a new (louder) amp later. If
- you already have a drummer to play with, then you probably need to get
- something larger.
-
- The last issue is whether you should buy new or used. Used basses
- cost about half as much, and aren't likely to fall apart or go bad unless
- it already has. If you do buy used, try very hard to get an experienced
- bass player to look at it for you before you buy and identify any problems
- it may have, because if a bass's neck is warping or its finish is peeling
- than it may not be a good buy no matter how cheap it is. However, if a used
- bass is in good condition it will usually be an excellent bargain. For
- $250, you can buy a used bass that might cost you $400 or $500 if you
- bought it new. So, for the same amount of money you can usually get a better
- bass if you go used.
- Used amps rarely have anything wrong with them that you wouldn't notice
- right away (such as not making any volume or humming loudly). However,
- because they don't go bad they also aren't that much cheaper than new
- gear. They are somewhat cheaper, though, so it's worth looking into them
- and seeing what you can find.
-
- You should always try to look at as many basses and amps as you can
- before you buy one, at least 5 or 6 of each. Different people like
- different things, and even among cheap equipment some pieces will be
- much more suited to you than others will. You should also look at several
- shops, if you can, because pricing policies vary widely from one shop to
- another and some comparison shopping can save you a lot of money. Some
- shops will negotiate over prices with you, and sometimes you can knock
- them down as much as 20% or more. In other shops, the price listed is
- the price and they won't come down at all. So, if you see the same bass
- listed at two different prices, ask the higher-priced shop if they can
- give you a lower price, and if you want, mention what some of your
- alternatives are. You can do this even if they're not the same model:
- you might say "well, I'd like to buy this Fender P-bass, but you're
- charging $300 and I can get a Peavey for $250 at X shop. Can you
- come down in price a little bit?" If they do, great: but if they
- don't, then don't push them, because you don't have anything to
- gain by irritating them. Another thing to bear in mind is that some
- shops will give you a package deal if you buy both an amp and a bass
- from them, so you might save some money by doing that.
- When you try a bass, the salesperson may want you to try it through a
- very expensive amp. Don't do that, because the bass will sound much better
- through a $1000 amp than it will through the one you're likely to buy,
- and you want to hear what it'll sound like for you. If you think you
- know what amp you want to buy, then play basses through the same amp
- or as close to it as you can come. The same is true for amps: don't
- try them out with a $2000 bass because they won't sound nearly as good
- with a beginning bass. Use a bass as close to one that you might buy
- as you can.
-
-
- 5. What is tabulature?
-
- Bass tabulature, or TAB for short, is a simple method for writing bass
- music. There are several different versions of tabulature, but the
- following features are common to most of them.
-
- Bass tab is written on four-line staves. In text interfaces these are usually
- written using dashed characters. Each space corresponds to one string on the
- bass: the lowest space corresponds to the E string, the next lowest to the A
- string, the next to the D string, and the highest to the G string. A number on
- a given space represents a note played at the given fret on the corresponding
- string; thus, to indicate playing a G at the third fret on the E string,
- one would write:
-
- G------------------------------------
- D------------------------------------
- A------------------------------------
- E----3-------------------------------
-
- Notes are played from the left of the staff to the right; thus, an
- ascending G major scale might be written:
-
- G------------------------------------
- D-------------------2--4--5----------
- A----------2--3--5-------------------
- E----3--5----------------------------
-
- Or, using open strings, it might be written like this:
-
- G-------------------------0----------
- D----------------0--2--4-------------
- A-------0--2--3----------------------
- E----3-------------------------------
-
- Chords can be written by writing two numbers in the same vertical bar. Thus
- one might write a simple A major chord as:
-
- G-----9------------------------------
- D-----11-----------------------------
- A-----0------------------------------
- E------------------------------------
-
- which means to play an open note on the A string, to play a C# at the 11th
- fret on the D string, and an E at the 9th fret on the G string.
-
- Various fingering techniques can be noted in TAB as well. This is done by
- writing a single character after the note being fingered. The most common of
- these are:
- h - hammer-on from previous note
- p - pull off from previous note
- \ - slide up to note
- b - bend note
- S - slap the note with the right-hand thumb (left hand if left-handed)
- P - pop the note with the right hand (ditto)
- t - tap the note with the right hand (ditto)
- H - harmonic
-
- Thus a funky bass line might be written like this:
-
- G---------5P-7h-5p-------------------
- D------------------------3b----------
- A---0S\5-----------3S-5S----5S-5H---
- E------------------------------------
-
- A muted note (one that is not fingered cleanly and makes a percussive
- sound rather than a clear tone) is written by placing an x on a line
- instead of a number:
-
- G------------5--7--------------------
- D------------------------------------
- A---5--x--x--------5--x--5-----------
- E------------------------------------
-
- When it is not obvious which left-hand (right-hand to lefties) finger should
- be used to to fret a particular note, this may be indicated by writing a
- number under the note, with 1=index finger, 2=middle finger, 3=ring
- finger, 4=pinkie finger, and rarely, 5-thumb:
-
- G---------5--7--5--------------------
- D------------------------------------
- A---0--5-----------------------------
- E------------------------------------
- 1 1 3
-
- It is becoming popular to indicate time in TAB by writing over each note
- a letter indicating the time value of the note: s=sixteenth note, e=eighth
- note, q=quarter note, h=half note, w=whole note. It is possible to add
- dots to this system as is done with normal notes though it is not common.
- In addition, vertical bars are usually used to indicate measure breaks.
- TAB noted this way might look like this:
-
- w q s s e q h q. e e e s s e h
- G-----|----5--7--5-------|-------------5--7--7-|----
- D-----|------------------|-3--3--5--7----------|----
- A---0-|-5-----------8--5-|---------------------|-5--
- E-----|------------------|---------------------|----
-
- 6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of tabulature?
-
- The major advantage of TAB as a notation system is that it clearly
- indicates how the music is to be played technically, ie which note are
- fingered by which fingers using which techniques. Other advantages include:
- no need to use sharps or flats.
- The major disadvantage is that time marking in TAB is still rather primitive
- and will probably never be as flexible as regular music notation due to the
- limitations of the ASCII character set. In printed sheet music, this problem
- is commonly addressed by writing TAB and conventional music notation
- simultaneouly. This is inconvenient for ASCII representations, but some
- people are attempting to develop useful systems for it. None have become
- widely followed at this time, however. Other disadvantages include: not
- widely known among classicly trained musicians (though this is changing)
- believed by some to discourage improvisation and ear training.
-
- 7. Where can I get TAB to learn?
-
- There are several sites where you can get TAB for bass by anonymous FTP.
-
- a) ftp.uwp.edu has the archives for The Bottom Line mailing list, and
- it has a lot of other things music-related things as well. Look in
- /pub/music.
-
- b) ftp.nevada.edu (131.216.1.11) has a lot of TAB for both guitar and bass.
- Feel free to write to jamesb@redrock.nevada.edu if you have questions or
- comments. Please do NOT sent requests or submissions to root@nevada, or
- to any other account except the jamesb account. The local sysadmin is
- not connected to the bass TAB site and doesn't appreciate getting his
- mailbox spammed up :)
-
- c) ftp.uu.net is accessible from UUNET and has copies of everything that is
- available from the first two sets for people without Internet access. Try
- this if you can't figure out how to reach the others.
-
- 8. Who are some major makers of bass equipment? How much does their
- equipment cost? How can I get in touch with a particular manufacturer?
-
- The best source for answers to questions like this is the Bass Player
- Buyer's Guide, put out annually by Bass Player magazine. It lists nearly
- all available equipment, divided into instruments, amps and cabinets,
- signal processors, parts and accessories, and strings. It includes some
- basic information about the gear, list price, and references to product
- reviews that appeared in BP where relevant.
- List price is the manufacturer's suggested retail price. In actual practice,
- retail prices tend to be about 20% below list price, so that equipment is
- not as expensive as it appears to be. Competitive shopping can often turn
- up a lot of bargains as well. In addition, used equipment tends to be
- cheaper than new, although when buying used things you will want to make
- sure that they're in serviceable condition.
- The Buyer's Guide lists the addresses and phone numbers of all manufacturers
- who are listed in it at the back of the guide. Most manufacturers put their
- addresses and numbers in their advertisements which appear in Bass Player
- and in many guitar magazines as well. Check your local music store.
-
- 9. What are some good books on bass instruction?
-
- There are lots of books on introductry bass playing, and there aren't all
- that many differences between them. There is a six-book series written
- by Dan Dean called "Electric Bass" (the last three books are also known
- as "The Studio Bassist") which presents a comprehensive approach to
- learning the bass. There is a series of books by Chuck Rainey which also
- present a comprehensive bass playing method: the first book is an excellent
- introduction to the bass while the other books cover advanced topics in
- bass playing. Carole Kaye has also written a six-book series on bass playing
- which many people recommend highly.
- There is also a book called "Electric Bass Guitar" which is a compilation
- of old bass columns from Guitar Player magazine (before BP existed [gasp])
- which is definitive if a little eclectic.
- Somewhat more advanced books which a lot of people find useful include
- "Modern Electric Bass" by Jaco Pastorius and "Electric Bass" by John
- Patitucci. A good book on bass harmonics is "Harmonics for Electric Bass"
- by Adam Novick.
- These are only a few of the many books on bass playing that are available
- for beginning and advanced bassists. Most music stores carry a selection of
- instruction books and you should be able to find something that will work well
- for you without too much effort.
-
- 11. How is standard music notation written for bass?
-
- Standard music notation is written for bass in exactly the same way
- that it is for piano, except that it is written one octave higher than
- played; that is, the note to be played on the bass is one octave lower
- than the one written on the page. This is done to avoid using a very large
- number of ledger lines, since most bass parts go well below the lowest
- line of the bass clef.
- For example, the lowest note on a 4-string bass, open E, would be written
- as:
- -------|------------------- (lowest line of staff)
- |
- ---O---
-
- The written note is E above low C, but the actual note on the bass is E
- below low C. Writing this note as played would take 4 ledger lines.
- As a second example, when the written music calls for middle C, you
- should play the C one octave below that, which is the 5th fret on the G
- string.
-
- 11. To what pitches are bass strings normally tuned?
-
- A. Pitch is measured in hertz (hz), which is the rate at which the
- string is vibrating back and forth (measured in cycles per second).
- The standard definition of pitch is that the A above middle C is
- exactly 440 hz. The open A string on a bass is three octaves below
- that A, and dropping one octave divides the frequency by 2. So the
- A below middle C is 220 hz, the A below that is 110 hz, and the open
- A string on the bass is 55 hz.
- You can get the pitches for the other two strings in either of two
- ways. The first is to use natural tuning, and the second is to use
- even-tempered tuning.
- Natural tuning is based on the fact that a major chord sounds most
- pure if the ratio of the frequencies of the three notes is exactly
- 4:5:6:8. Thus an A major chord starting on the 440 hz A would be
- tuned as follows: A 440 hz, C# 550 hz, E 660 hz, A 880hz. A bass
- is tuned in perfect fourths, and as you can see from the E-A example
- in the A major chord, the frequencies of two notes in a perfect
- fourth are always 6:8, or 3:4. Using this ratio, and knowing that the
- open A string on a bass is 55 hz, we can find the pitches of the other
- strings just by multiplying or dividing by 4/3, or 1.33333.
- The problem with natural tuning is that it is internally inconsistent,
- because it can produce several different "correct" pitches for a given
- note. For example, consider starting with the 440 hz A, and trying to
- find the pitch of the A one octave above it. One way to do that is to
- say "octaves are in the ratio 4:8" and conclude that the A one octave
- above is 880 hz.
- However, an equally valid way is to reason as follows. The C# that is
- above the A is in the ratio 5:4 with that A, so its pitch must be 550 hz.
- Starting on that C#, we can build a C# major chord, which will have F
- as its third. The ratio of C# to F must also be 5:4, so that F must
- have a pitch of 550 * (5/4) = 687.5 hz. Now, starting on that F, we
- can build an F major chord with A as the third. The pitch of that A
- must be 687.5 * (5/4) = 859 hz, which is rather different from 880
- hz. If you tuned an instrument to F=687, A=880, and played an F major
- chord on it, it would sounds very out of tune.
- The solution, which was popularized by JS Bach, is to slightly fudge
- the "natural" tuning of each note to average out the errors so that,
- while each chord will be a little off, no one chord will be very wrong
- and you can play in any key you like. Bach's piece, "The Well Tempered
- Clavier", which modulates through all 12 keys, was written to demonstrate
- the power of even-tempered tuning.
- The formula for even tempering is based on the number of half-steps
- between two notes. The ratio of pitch between two notes that are N
- half-steps apart is given by
-
- 2^(N/12)
-
- This formula was chosen because it makes the octave work out perfectly;
- an octave is 12 half steps so the ratio of two notes an octave apart is
- just 2 ^ (12/12) or 2^1, or 2. The advantange of this formula is that
- it gives the same answer for the pitch of a note, regardless of what
- intervals are used to calculate it. In the above example, the ratio
- between A and A an octave higher is 2^(12/12) or 2. The ratio of a
- major third is 2^(4/12) or 1.260. Starting with A 440, and going up
- by major thirds, we get C# = 554, F = 698, A = 880, because
-
- 1.26^3 = [2^(4/12)]^3 = 2^(12/12) = 2.
-
- For a perfect fourth, which is 5 half-steps, the formula gives a
- ratio of 2^(5/12) or 1.33484. Note that this is just slightly bigger
- than the ratio of 1.33333 given by the natural tuning, so it doesn't
- make a whole lot of difference which one you use in practice.
-
- Now, to answer the question :) The pitch of an A string is 55hz, and
- the other pitches depend on whether you use even-tempered tuning or
- natural tuning. The two cases are, for a six-string bass:
-
- B E A D G C
- Natural 30.938 41.250 55.000 73.333 97.777 130.369
- Even-tempered 30.868 41.203 55.000 73.416 97.999 130.812
-
-
- Other tunings are rare but not unknown. Most common is to tune the
- E string down to D, giving the tuning D-A-D-G. This has become less
- common since 5-string basses became popular but is found on many
- older records. Roger Waters of Pink Floyd uses it a lot. Another
- common tuning is to tune all strings one half-step flat: Eb, Ag, Db,
- Gb (or D#, G#, C#, F# if you like to think of it that way.) This
- reduces the tension on the strings, making string bending easier.
- Most groups that use this tuning, notably Van Halen, actually tune
- down so the guitarist can have the benefits of lower tension: the
- bass player just tunes down to match. However, it can be convenient
- to have lower string tension on bass as well. Also, being tuned to
- E flat instead of E can make things easier if you are playing with
- a horn section, since horn music is often written in such keys as
- E flat and B flat.
-
- Other artists use even weirder tunings, often setting the string
- intervals to fifths, major thirds, tritones, or even unisons. Michael
- Manring is probably the most notable artist who does this. It should
- be noted that this isn't all that good a thing for the bass, because
- the strings are designed so that all four strings will have the same
- tension in normal tuning, and thus apply the same pressure to the neck.
- If you change the tuning, so that some strings apply more pressure to
- the neck than others, the neck can warp in very odd ways that are not
- easy to fix. Michael solves this problem by using a bass with a graphite
- neck, and if you can afford to do this, you don't need to worry about
- the neck warping (for any reason). But if you have a wooden-necked bass,
- you might want to put the bass back into normal tuning after you experiment
- with other tunings.
-
- <answers continue in part 2>
-
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